Chapter 6

When the kiss fell, I accepted it docilely throughout, without dodging.

He looked at my face, pale from pain, and laughed softly.

"Looks like the academy really did tame that temper of yours. In the past, if I'd hurt you like this, you would have jumped up and kicked me."

He buried his head in the crook of my neck, his voice soft. "After all these years, you've finally learned to behave."

"Susie, as long as you stay obedient like this, the position of Mrs. Kingsley will always be yours."

"Later on, I'll have Andy registered under your name. The three of us will be a proper family. Sounds good, right?"

I looked at the ceiling. "Okay."

Whatever he said was fine.

When the knocking sounded at the door, Tristan's movements stopped.

Andy stood in the doorway holding his pillow, crying hysterically. "Daddy, Andy had a nightmare. I want Daddy to sleep with me."

Tristan looked at me, but ultimately put on his clothes and stood up.

"You sleep first. I'll go check on the child."

The door closed. I sat up and simply cleaned up the blood between my legs.

I encountered Nora when I went downstairs to get medicine.

She stood at the top of the stairs, as if she'd been waiting specifically for me.

Her gaze slowly moved from the marks on my neck to my face, lingering there for a long time.

"You know, during the years you were gone, Tristan treated me very well."

Her voice was soft. "So why did you have to come back?"

I didn't have time to answer.

She suddenly pressed a knife into my hand, then gripped my hand and stabbed it viciously into her own forearm.

Blood spurted out, warm, splashing onto the back of my hand.

"Tristan, save me..."

When Tristan rushed out of the children's room, I was still holding that knife.

Nora lay in a pool of blood. Andy ran out barefoot, crying and calling for his mommy.

"Susie, what are you doing!"

Nora's eyes filled with tears. "Susie, why do you want to kill me? Can you really not tolerate my existence?"

It wasn't me. She was the one who gripped my hand and stabbed herself.

I opened my mouth. "It wasn't me... She did it herself..."

When the slap came, I turned my face away.

Blood seeped from the corner of my mouth. I tasted rust.

Tristan looked down at me, his eyes filled with familiar anger and disappointment.

"You want to say she gripped your hand and hurt herself?"

"Susie, even your lies should have limits."

He crouched down, gently lifting Nora, tearing off his shirt to stanch her bleeding.

When he looked at me again, only coldness remained in his eyes.

"Last time you saved Nora, I thought you'd really changed. I suspected the academy had treated you poorly, that you'd suffered wrongs. I sent people to investigate. I even regretted sending you there."

"But you—"

He turned his face away, as if he couldn't bear to look at me any longer.

"Either go back to the academy, or just die! Susie, don't force me to choose for you."

I froze, my body trembling with fear.

I didn't want to die, and I didn't want to return to the academy. I didn't want to choose.

I looked at Tristan's face anxiously and carefully—from his brow bone, eyes, to his tightly pressed lips—trying to find any sign of relenting.

But there was none.

He was serious.

Seeing that I still hadn't moved, he lost patience, his eyes cold as he ordered, "Take the lady away. Send her back to the academy. Tell them to discipline her properly! If they still can't teach her—"

Before the bodyguards could forcibly drag me away, my head was spinning and I stumbled toward the exit in a panic.

All the rules and propriety I'd learned these past years seemed to vanish in that moment.

In my panic, I seemed to trip over something. My knee split open and bled, but I didn't care.

I had only one thought: I absolutely could not go back there.

Even if it meant death, I didn't want to return to that place where even breathing had to be calculated.

I didn't want to be scrutinized like livestock again. And I didn't want... to love Tristan anymore.

Behind me, Nora groaned, as if the pain was unbearable.

I only heard Tristan urgently call her name, soothing her. "Nora, hang in there. The ambulance will be here soon!"

Andy stood barefoot on the floor, also crying out, "Mommy, Mommy!"

Everyone was surrounding Nora. No one was looking at me.

Outside was Harbor City's night. Traffic was sparse. I walked along the road to the river's edge.

Below the bridge, the river water rushed violently. I climbed over the railing and took a step forward.

Then I leaped!